The need for conducting a scan such as for medical purposes or for generally determining a particular state of a person or object is triggered by one of three basic factors. In a first instance, the person complains of various symptoms (or an object is similar to other objects which have been exhibiting defects). Secondly the person or object is already being checked for some unrelated reason and an anomaly appears which requires further investigation, or thirdly there is simply an inquiry for the conducting of a screening test to determine (or to rule out) a specific or suspected state or condition (e.g., a prospective parent simply wishing to observe a sonogram of an unborn child).
The basic diagnostic methods of determining the health conditions of a patient, or whether there are anomalies in a patient's medical condition, are primarily:
(a) direct interviews with the patient for the subjective determination of not overtly apparent symptoms (e.g., pain) and conditions, and PA1 (b) the imaging of affected areas of the patient's body for an objective determination (regardless of whether the patient is complaining of a symptom or something was found based on testing for an unrelated condition or state). PA1 a) means for providing comparative images for a diagnostician to directly compare on a single display, the image obtained from the patient (or object) and library stored images (from the same type of screening device), corresponding to probable conditions as determined either by the diagnostician or by computerized comparison to the library stored images falling within preset comparison parameters; PA1 b) means for providing weighted probability for a particular diagnosis being relevant to the patient's (or object's) condition, based on library stored general parameters and optionally in further view of the patient's prior medical history (or repair or maintenance history); PA1 c) means for providing weighted probability for a particular mistake being relevant to the patient's (or object's) condition and image based on library stored general parameters and optionally in further view of the patient's prior medical history (or object's prior history) and present image on the screen. (The means also provides a showing of probable errors with respect to a particular selected image). PA1 d) means for providing to the diagnostician, if relevant, which additional test are required to increase the probability of relevance of a probable diagnosis; PA1 e) means for providing to the diagnostician, information regarding treatment or repair protocols for a diagnosis with a probability above a pre-set probability level. PA1 f) means for providing the user or diagnostician case and situation directions for monitoring and follow-up.
The type of imaging most properly utilized for an initial objective determination is usually dictated by the nature of the organ or part of the body exhibiting a specific condition (or which is being tested for determining if a condition exists), or the actual condition which is suspected.
Imaging devices (the term "imaging" used hereinafter includes optical, aural and any other sensory recordable state of an object or patient) primarily include those which permit visual inspection of a site or cavity directly or by use of a lens system for optical enhancement, and devices which permit visual inspection of a site through analog or digital displays or the analysis of images resulting from the use of ultrasound waves (sonograms), magnetic resonance (MRI), computerized tomography (CAT scans), nuclear medicine, x-rays or other imaging technology. Existing specific tools or devices used for imaging include laparoscopes, MRI and ultrasonogram devices, as well as hysteroscopes, arthroscopes, esophagoscopes, bronchoscopes, rectoscopes, laryngoscopes, otoscopes, ophthalmoscopes, colposcopes, microscopes, computed radiography, x-ray imaging, computed tomography, mammography, angiography, gamma camera and nuclear medicine instruments, boreoscopes (used for internal analysis of machinery) and the like, which are all well known diagnostic tools in the art.
Results from use of an imaging devices are usually directly visually (or less often, aurally) analyzed by skilled technicians (e.g., structural analysis of objects such as aircraft for metal fatigue or other possible defects) or medical personnel (i.e., diagnosticians) for determination of abnormalities or the lack thereof, in deciding on a probable basis for a condition or even for the determination that a condition does not exist. However, even with skilled analyzers, anomalies may be slight, obscured, or even not abnormal in the patient being tested since, while generally similar, body parts and organs are rarely sufficiently different in appearance between patients, whereby, unless specifically recognized, diagnostic results may be in error.
To assist in making a diagnosis from an image scanning, oftentime "landmarks" of an object or an organ are designated as being indicative of anomalies and the portion of the image related to the landmark is digitized and computer analyzed with a stored database. This comparison serves to determine whether the portion falls within accepted normal parameters or not, in providing an automatically generated diagnosis. Examples of such systems, with respect to medical diagnosis, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,235,510 and 5,437,278.
Though the original image remains available for the diagnostician in such computer aided systems, there is little enhancement to the actual analysis by the diagnostician of the image itself except for some indication where and what to look for more closely, in determining the veracity of the digitized analysis. In addition, the results from the digitization are only as valid as the data originally input with acceptance of a diagnosis serving to take away decisional control from the diagnostician. Furthermore, the devices are entirely geared to simple diagnosis based on a comparison between digitized portions of an image and a stored data base. There is however no guidance with respect to appropriate additional tests, probability of correctness of diagnosis and probability of mistake of the diagnosis (with reasons or basis for the possible errors), follow ups, treatment and the like.